The People's Choice

The People’s Choice

ibonreads — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 14:56:52 +0000

The overwhelming majority of Filipinos suffer chronic poverty and backwardness. The last nine years of the Arroyo administration have only seen their situation become even worse. Many are hoping that the May 2010 elections will be a fresh start and that new leadership will address their plight.

Yet the elections can only usher in the needed reforms if the people are able to choose national and local leaders who are genuinely pro-people, patriotic and democratic. The country’s problems are huge and demand committed leaders willing to challenge long-standing monopolies of economic and political power. The people have to be critical to see if such leaders are at hand.Elections can be used to put real progressives into government but the reality for now is that they are going to be a minority at best. At the end of the day their strength will come from being part of a larger effort to build democracy based on people organizing for their democratic rights.

Whatever happens, elections must be a venue for raising the awareness of the people about their democratic rights and the kinds of leaders that they should have and deserve. This kind of awareness can be the starting point of struggling for these rights even after the May 2010 elections.

Elections and Ambition

ibonreads — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 23:55:45 +0000

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her allies appear to be using the May 2010 elections to remain in power. They are maneuvering to take national and local positions in the next administration. It is also likely that there will be renewed efforts at charter change that, among others, includes a shift to a parliamentary system that allows former president Arroyo to become prime minister.

For now there are even fears that the elections may fail due to problems with automation, intensified violence, and massive fraud. Scenarios of emergency rule, some kind of martial law and of a “transition government” have also already been floated. All these are symptoms of Philippine politics driven by ambition rather than democratic governance and service to the people.

Arroyo administration officials running in May 2010

ibonreads — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 00:12:37 +0000

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (Congressional seat, Pampanga)
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita (Congressional seat, Batangas)
Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera (Congressional seat, Quezon)
Secretary Hermogenes Esperon of the Presidential Management Staff (Congressional seat, Pangasinan)
Secretary Augusto Syjuco of the Technical Education and Skills
Development Authority (Congressional seat, Iloilo) Budget Secretary
Rolando Andaya (Congressional seat, Camarines Sur)
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap (Congressional seat, Bohol)
Secretary Raul Gonzalez, chief presidential legal counsel (Mayor, Iloilo City)
Secretary Edgar Pamintuan of the Luzon Urban Beltway (Mayor, Angeles City)

The promise and perils of automated elections

ibonreads — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:45:16 +0000

*Facts and figures on the Automated Election System from the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) and the Computer Professionals’ Union (CPU)

The Automated Election System (AES) promises modern democratic elections in the country with quicker counting that eliminates the conditions for wholesale cheating through the notorious dagdag-bawas.

P7.2 billion

Smartmatic-TIM contract

82,200

Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines

1,671

unique ballots

What is ‘automated’ from the old manual system?

Voting remains manual, with voters writing their names and filling up ballots by hand
But vote-counting from the ballots is computerized, with PCOS machines counting and recording votes at the precinct level
Canvassing is also computerized, with recorded votes from precincts sent via Internet to servers for consolidation at municipal, provincial and national levels

1. Pre-election process

Inadequate testing of machines in actual field conditions
No real source code review
No plan for verifying program actually installed in the 82,200 PCOS machines
Manipulation of lists of voters, candidates lists and precincts/clustered precincts
Possible printing of excess ballots to be used for cheating
Security concerns in storage, packing and delivery of ballots as well as in deployment and testing/ sealing of PCOS machines

2. Election day voting vulnerabilities

Manipulation of results through compact flash (CF) cards used to configure each PCOS machine
Confusion from using a new, unfamiliar and more complicated system than in manual elections – ex. possible problems with various election paraphernalia
Smartmatic-TIM generates and hence knows the digital signatures/ passwords of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs)
No way to verify integrity of program installed in PCOS upon initialization
Problems with filling up long ballot, ballot jamming and misreading, machine breakdown
Power failure and/or communications breakdown

3. Vulnerabilities from canvassing to proclamation

Possible failure to generate or print election returns (ERs)
Automated dagdag-bawas in canvassing of ERs, statements of votes, certificates of canvass
ERs can be digitally signed and encrypted by BEIs and also others who know their passwords, creating the possibility of changing ERs; SOVs and COCs can be similarly altered
Security concerns regarding the servers consolidating votes n Power failure and/or communications breakdown
Unclear procedures in case of conflicting results, connectivity or transmission problems, hardware or software failure, and in adjudicating electoral protests in an automated
election

The conditions for disarray and conditions for fraud are there not just in the presidential elections but also in the other national positions (vice presidential, senatorial) and the local positions vital for the Arroyo circle’s efforts to remain in power.

Persistence of means of fraud: vote-buying, voter intimidation and harassment, sabotaging voters, flying voters, ballot-switching, spoiled ballots…